The first pixels

I didn't start programming because I found it fascinating or because someone recommended it to me. I started because I had something concrete to solve and didn't know how to do it any other way. That was 2022.

The first real projects were those two. They weren't ambitious or original. They were small, simple and completely mine. I finished them, I used them, and that was enough. I didn't make them to show anyone, but for them to work, and they worked. There's something in that I still value: finishing something even if nobody sees it.

The moment something I wrote appeared on screen for the first time was the moment I understood this was mine.

It wasn't a dramatic moment. It was a div with a background color and text inside. But something shifted there. Seeing that what you write has an immediate visual consequence is hard to explain if you haven't experienced it. For me it was enough to want to keep going.

The stack that year doesn't matter as much as what learning it represented. Each new concept was a tool I didn't have before. I wasn't studying to pass something, I was studying because I wanted to be able to do more things. That difference shows in how you learn and how much you retain.

2022 wasn't a year of big achievements or projects that impress anyone. It was the year I started. And that, looking back, is quite a lot.